Frozen Soul
by Lexi13930
Summary: *re-write of Frozen Waters* It was freezing, yet he felt nothing. "What are you?" The woman asked. "I'm not sure," he replied, swiping the white bangs out of his eyes. "But I'm going to find out, and they're going to pay for what they did to me." Takes place after Blood of Olympus.
1. Chapter 1

**~Frozen Soul~**

* * *

Have you ever felt fear before? Has your heart ever pounded so hard in your chest you thought it would burst? Have you palms ever been so drenched in sweat you feared it would never wash off?

Percy had. He had felt fear for as long as he could remember be it from Gabe, Monsters or even bullies at his school. Percy had wandered the endless lengths of Tartarus, fought creatures as old as the world itself and still lived to tell the tale.

But now he feared he would never walk free again; feared he'd never hear the musical laugh of those he loved. After all the demons that hunted him now couldn't be killed, he couldn't cut them down with steel, gold or bronze – Percy couldn't fight something he couldn't see.

How could Percy fight his demons if he created them in the first place? How could he win a fight against his own thoughts; his own fears, loves and desires?

He couldn't. So he had to submit to them, become one with his own darkness.

 _...Flashback..._

They had won.

Percy still couldn't believe it; he probably wouldn't ever be able to believe it. How could they, mere demigods, have won against an immortal older than time himself? Yet here they all were even Leo, who had dramatically re-entered the world of the living a few hours ago on a golden dragon with a young girl by the name of Calypso. They had all been summoned to Olympus to 'discuss their great victory' but the idea that Zeus even wanted silly mortals in his throne room instantly had Percy expecting the worst.

"Heroes of Olympus you have all done a great deed for us and we are grateful," The King of the gods began his unnecessarily loud voice echoing around the room the God, as usual, sounded annoyingly confident, causing Percy to narrow his eyes at him – there was something about the set of his face Percy didn't like, the smug smile and the glint in his eyes made him uncomfortable. In an act to reassure himself Percy let his right hand stray to his pocket were his loyal sword rested, waiting.

"You showed great power and skill during our battle against Gaea," Zeus continued and Percy had to bite down on his lip hard to stop himself from laughing at the pained expression on the God's face. "Your help will be remembered and you shall be rewarded in time but for now we have something else to discuss."

Percy huffed under his breath- 'in time they'll be rewarded' yeah right. The gods only ever gave out rewards when it would help them in the long term – they offered Percy Godhood so that they could control him, made Annabeth's dream come true; gave her the job of designing Olympus, so that they didn't have to do it. Blinking, Percy realised that Zeus had continued talking whilst Percy had been thinking.

"… too powerful and as a result-" Zeus was saying and Percy tried to remember what the conversation was about before his mind had wandered.

"What do you mean 'too powerful'" Jason interrupted, causing everyone – including the Gods – to stare at the son of Jupiter, not that Jason looked even fazed by the number of eyes on him, he merely straightened his back and stared back at his father. "How could we possible be 'too powerful'?"

Percy frowned at that, Zeus thought a bunch of teenagers were 'too powerful' what a bunch of rubbish. If anything the god should be worried about whatever life changing prophecy was going to come next. From Percy's limited knowledge it could be assumed that there is always, if not most of the time, a prophecy going around.

"Together you managed to pull of impossible-" Zeus pressed on in that same cocky tone he'd used earlier.

"Improbable." Athena corrected, causing Leo to snicker at the stricken look on the King of the Gods' face, Leo soon shut up after multiple death glares were thrown his way.

"Together you managed to pull of an _improbable_ mission, saving the world from the rule of Gaea and the destruction she would have, no doubt, unleashed upon the world." Zeus drawled letting his gaze fall over each of the Demigods, lingering on Jason for a few seconds, when Zeus' gave fell on him Percy jutted his chin out and glared at the God, the action was a little bit childish but it made Percy feel a little better and, more importantly, he hoped the god could see the words hidden in Percy's sea-green eyes – _I won't go down without a fight._

"We have decided-" Zeus declared, before Poseidon interrupted him.

"You have decided, brother; the rest of us haven't heard of and decision until today." Something about the anger in his dad's voice made Percy assume the worst and he pulled Riptide out of his pocket and whirled it around his fingers, he didn't doubt the God's noticed the action but they should know that despite the fact the Demigods were impossibly powerless against the Olympians Percy and his friends could still fight.

"What?" Percy growled, tired of the hurricane of questions in his brain, "What did you 'decide'?" Annabeth gave him a sharp glare but Percy was too tired to care- he'd been up since dawn rebuilding the camp after the miniature battle that took place when Gaea attacked he hadn't had any breaks and all he really wanted was some blue cookies and his bed.

"You forget your place, boy." Zeus snapped, eyes flashing like lightning, and Percy suddenly understood where Thalia got her temper from.

"And you forget yours, in case you forgot we saved you. You are in our debt not the other way around." Percy barely registered that he'd taken a step forward until Frank put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head; Percy sighed but didn't move again.

"If it wasn't for us you wouldn't have had the power to save us in the first place." Zeus snapped, the room began to smell faintly of ozone but Percy didn't care, he'd had enough of respecting and fearing the Gods, he'd had enough of saving their godly behinds only to have the gods make the same mistake again.

"If it wasn't for you we wouldn't have had to save you to begin with. If it wasn't for you ignoring the fact Kronos was rising he could have been stopped before the war had even begun. If it wasn't for the fact you sulked your way through the first half of the war with Gaea maybe we wouldn't have had to almost die every day for a month to win a war we were doomed to lose."

Percy had gone too far; had said too much. He was sure of it when Zeus' eyes took on a wicked gleam and Percy and his friends were suddenly enveloped in a bright light, the last thing Percy saw was Zeus' smirk before the world turned on its side and faded away.

* * *

Percy woke up in his cabin and immediately pulled Riptide out of his pocket and crouch on his bed, ready to fight. What he didn't expect was for a wave of dizziness to hit him and he fell right off his bed and landed on the unforgiving wooden floor with an _oof_. It took him approximately two minutes to untangle himself from his duvet, a fact he had no intention of sharing with anyone ever.

When he did manage to get to his feet he immediately fell to his knees, his head in his hands trying to keep the contents of his stomach down to no success – three seconds later he had his head in the toilet and was retching. His vomit sent a disgusting smell through the cabin and Percy was suddenly immensely grateful that he was alone-he didn't want anyone else to see him like this.

Once his body was happy that his stomach was empty Percy slumped against the wall behind him and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, it wasn't the sanitary option but Percy wanted the vomit gone as soon as possible. When he pulled his hand away and looked at it he was almost sick again. Red liquid covered his hand – he was vomiting blood.

"Gross" he muttered to himself, a huge draw back to having his own cabin was that he often thought out loud, which caused an awful lot of embarrassing conversations over the years – mostly when someone came into his cabin to make him jump or prank him he'd be standing with his back to them talking to himself.

"Blood, that's totally normal, ok yep totally one-hundred percent normal."

." Percy groaned, head spinning and stomach churning again. Percy buried his head in his knees and drew in deep breaths, just like Chiron had taught him after he had his first relapse due to spending endless hours in Greek Hell.

In, out. In, out. Percy breathed his breaths painfully loud in the silent cabin. For a few minutes Percy sat there looking completely and utterly calm, a complete illusion to his internal storm, but after a while he calmed his thoughts until mere ripples against his usual calm personality.

A thought suddenly occurred to him and his head snapped up and he glanced at the toilet opposite him, eyebrows raised. Usually when he panicked the pipes in his bathroom would burst, but now they seemed complete normal. Frowning, Percy tried to focus on the water humming silently in the pipes. Nothing. Huh.

Percy blinked slowly and clambered to his feet and walked over the sink, which sat next to the toilet in his blue tiled bathroom. He twisted the tap and water trickled free, so the plumbing wasn't broken, then why….

His mind stuttered to a stop and his mind flashed back to Olympus, 'you're too powerful' Zeus had told them, did he? No surely not. Percy looked up into the mirror above the sink and gasped at what he saw – his eyes once a beautiful (others word not his) sea-green colour were now a milky blue, almost colourless, further confirming his theory.

"No, he couldn't have. Oh gods no," he whispered eyes stinging, suddenly an arch of white hot anger shot through him and he raised his fist and smashed it into the face looking at him with those horrible eyes. The glass smashed and some shards rained down into the sink, like innocent snow-flakes.

Determined to still prove his theory wrong, Percy ran out of his bedroom to his bedside table where an empty glass sat, gleaming in the early morning light. He then charged back into the bathroom and filled it with water. Sitting on the toilet, with the lid down, for a moment he sat there until he pivoted in his seat and flushed the toilet. Looking down into the glass of water in his hand, Percy narrowed his eyes and used all his powers of concentration on the water sitting devastatingly still in the glass.

"Come on, please." Nothing, "Move, gods-damned it." Percy sat there for what could have been decades for all he knew. Eventually he gave up, his anger rose to dangerous heights again ad without his powers to release it on Percy curled his hands around the glass so hard it smashed. Percy cursed and opened his hands, only for a criss-cross of angry, red gashes to stare back at him.

"Percy?" Jason called from the main room in his cabin, how had he not heard him enter? Percy dismissed the thought and got to his feet trying to get his hands into a position that wouldn't let the son of Jupiter would see the cuts , and wasn't painful because holy-Hera his hands hurt, he went with crossing his hands over his chest, and then he walked out of the door.

"Hey Jay, what's up, don't say the sky again, 'cause it's not funny." He greeted, grateful that his vice wasn't trembling as much as he was. Jason turned to him frowning and Percy's eyes widened at the purple bags under his friend's eyes, Jason looked relieved, causing Percy to take a wary step forward.

"Hey, you alright man?" he asked, almost going to put his hand on Jason's shoulder, he managed to stop himself when his hands throbbed again.

"Am I alright? Dude, you've been unconscious for three days." Jason huffed and Percy's eyes widened.

"'Three days', what do you mean 'three days'? Why have I been unconscious? Why do you look so tired? What-" Jason cut him off by slapping his hand over Percy's mouth.

"One at a time dude, jeez. Alright question one: I mean about thirty-five hours give or take. Question two: we're not sure because we all woke up a few minutes after the gods flashed us here after our little chat with father dearest." Jason took a deep breath, whether to calm his own anger or to prepare for the next answer Percy wasn't sure. "It's gone Perce." He whispered and Percy deflated a little in understanding.

"What's gone Jay?" he asked anyway, just to be sure he was aware what was going on.

"Our powers - me, Piper, Frank, Hazel, Annabeth and Leo, we all woke up weak and disorientated, and disgustingly powerless." Percy stopped breathing entirely, how could their powers be gone. How could Zeus do such a thing? Why would he? Percy knew perfectly well why but still…why?

"Zeus did this, that bastard," Percy growled, vision going red….actually it didn't go red at all more of a light blue but Percy didn't dwell on that particular strange bit of information.

"Percy…" Jason warned, gazing at the ceiling. Percy followed his gaze and frowned – what was he looking at. "The Gods may be listening." Jason clarified, Percy blushed – what had Jason thought as Percy stared at the ceiling like a twat?

"You don't know that, they might be massive stalkers but I don't think they'd go as far as watching sixteen year olds in their cabins," Percy squinted out the window. "At night especially." Jason didn't look convinced and, in all honesty, Percy wasn't that convinced either, shivering Percy wrapped his arms around himself.

"Are you alright?" Jason inquired placing a hand on Percy's shoulder; the latter cocked his head to the side and stared at his friend, Jason huffed "You look pale that's all and … Percy what happened to your hands!" Percy flinched at the sudden loud noise and Jason looked mildly guilty.

"It's nothing – just a scratch, that's all." Percy muttered, folding his hands behind his back to hide them from his friends view, the action caused pain so rip up his arm and he flinched –an action that didn't go unnoticed by Jason who grabbed him by the forearms and gently, as if Percy was something fragile; breakable, unclasped his hands and brought them into the light.

"Looks like more than a 'scratch' in my opinion." Percy rolled his eyes at the patronising tone in Jason's voice.

"Alright multiple scratches." Percy allowed, Jason glared at him and Percy smiled back. He didn't look impressed but Percy was going slightly loopy from all the blood loss.

"And some- _a lot_ of glass." Jason pointed out, Percy scowled and snatched his arm back, silently, and he examined the cuts and winced at the scarlet blood dripping on his oak floor, a sharp contrast to the otherwise blue and green cabin, turns out Jason was right, Percy glared through his fringe at the smug blond, Jason wisely looked away.

"Pft, _I'm fine."_ Percy huffed, Jason through his hands in the air in exasperation, then proceeded to bodily drag him into the bathroom, no way Percy was letting that happen. Percy swung his weight around and to the ground, pulling Jason down with him. He then rolled to his feet and pressed his foot to Jason's throat.

"I get the feeling that I won," Percy tapped his chin thoughtfully, "Yeah, it think I won." He grinned down at the boy on the floor but the look faded and he drew his eyebrows together. "Hey, Jay, you ok?"

Percy removed his foot from the boy's throat and crouched down, Jason looked awful – his face was green and his eyes bloodshot, he somehow looked ten times worse than he did moments ago.

"I'm ok," Jason muttered in Latin, Percy hardly understood the words but he knew what 'fine' was so It was pretty easy to figure out what he said.

"Dude, you lost your powers but can still speak Latin? That's messed up." Percy noted squinting into the distance, trying to recall some Greek but he was unable to. "Oh my gods I can't remember Greek, I'm so jealous." Percy pouted; unaware of the strange look the boy on the floor was giving him.

"Percy, shut up." Percy jumped at the sudden return of Jason; it was a manly jump of cause. Jason huffed clumsily got to his feet, Percy reached out to help him up but a sudden wave of dizziness hit him and he bolted into the bathroom and locked to door.

Percy held his head in his hands and took deep breaths again, not wanting to vomit. He managed to calm himself down after a few minutes, until he looked up and the walls began closing in around him, and the lack of humming power within him made him want to cry, he didn't but it was tempting.

He tried to calm himself down; tried to direct his thoughts away from the all-encompassing emptiness that clung to him.

"Percy? Are you ok?" Percy snapped his head up so fast he could a bit of whiplash; he'd, once again, forgotten he wasn't alone. He latched onto Jason's voice and tried to use it to ground himself but he just kept drifting further and further away. He was alone.

All alone in the dark, where was Annabeth? She helped him through the dark…Annabeth left him, just like everyone else did, no, not Annabeth, surely. A voice rang through his head and Percy curled in on himself. Gaea. It had to be her, it sounded like her.

"Percy?" No not Gaea, Jason. His friends – his OCD friend, the son of Zeus – no Jupiter, that's right Jupiter. Who was he? He was the son of someone important too, who was it again? Water, Percy could remember water, salt water to be exact, and warm sea-green eyes staring down at him with warm pride. Poseidon – he was the son of Poseidon, God of the Sea.

But was he? He wasn't sure, he couldn't feel anything, he couldn't feel water… what did water look like?

Thought and memories swirled in his head then tumbled down, like a Tsunami before draining through a plug hole, the same plug hole that had stolen everything from him. He was nothing; he was an empty shell, left on the side to be thrown away.

Percy snapped his eyes open; he was lying back in his bed. Had it all been a dream – a mere flicker of picture created by his mind? For a moment he felt light and alive again but all that faded when pain whispered up his arms, teasing his heart, causing it to pound in his chest. He clasped his hands together, he could feel the bandages that had been wrapped around him wounded skin, presumably by Jason, he didn't think the boy was strong enough the carry him down to the infirmary to have a child of Apollo fix him up.

He'd have to thank the son of Jupiter later, if he could ever bare to stand up and face the world again. Percy grimaced at the memory of his mini breakdown last night. Was it last night, or last century? He wasn't sure, he was equally unsure if he wanted to know in the first place.

Eventually lying in bed got boring, of course he'd loose his powers yet keep his ADHD, because wasn't that just his luck? He got to his feet and turned to go to the bathroom, he stopped outside the room, his head telling him that he should probably get as far away from water as possible, it was a strange feeling that made his shift from foot to foot uncomfortably.

'What are you so afraid of?' He asked himself, he received no answer, because he honestly didn't know anymore, monsters, water and death? He was afraid of them all, yet they didn't make him wake up covered in sweat and screaming, they didn't make him freeze whenever he was near them, witnessed them. If anything those fears made him stronger.

A burning sensation filled his stomach and Percy doubled over in pain. Gods, it was painful, like something was trying to tear its way out of him; trying to find its way out of the calm and quiet into the terrifying reality Percy found himself living in.

Percy clumsily got to his feet once the pain had passed, he tiptoed back to his bed and slumped face first down on the duvet, he wasn't ready to face the world yet, he would never be ready, he knew that much, he'd have to go and face the world at some point though it didn't matter if he felt ready or not. For now, though sleep seemed like a fantastic option.

When Percy came back around the first thing he did was frown 'he must've woken up on the wrong side of the bed' Percy thought sitting up to face the day before retreating back into the warmth, because what the Hades had happened while he'd slept.

The windows of his cabin were covered in frost; beautiful swirling patterns that made him gawk in awe. Percy huffed, his breath visible in the cold, dancing through the air, before being chased away by the lingering warm. It was missing, but not gone.

When Percy's feet touched the floor he slipped and collapsed to the floor, for what felt like the millionth time, however, this time, it wasn't his fault- the floor was sleek with frost and very slippery. Percy lay there for a while, letting his pride heal before he grasped the edge of his bed and pulled himself to his feet, he totally got to his feet immediately – of course, he didn't fall over multiple times.

Once on his feet Percy braced his hands on the wall and shoved himself in the direction of the door, surprisingly, he made it all the way there without falling over, well, he did crash into the door, but at least it wasn't the floor. Percy shoved his shoes on his feet and opened the door.

The world outside his meaningless, cabin was as cold as the arctic, not the Percy really felt it that much; he guessed it was because of the lingering shock of the sight before him: trees had been torn in half by wicked, sharp icicles that looked ominously like teeth. The sky was grey with clouds, the ground crunchy with a thick veil of snow. Percy pivoted to take in as much of the winter wonderland as he could.

On his left he saw what looked like a pathway; the trees were bent inwards casting the path in shadow and all the icicles seemed to be pointing that way, intrigued, Percy followed. He wished he'd brought his coat with him, but didn't want to turn back, besides the cold was a helpful reminder that this wasn't a dream, Camp Half-Blood was frozen, and last Percy checked it was summer.

Shadows loomed over him, the darkness would have usually triggered some… unpleasant memories, but somehow the biting cold kept calling him, his concentration never wavered from the path ahead; what was behind him faded away, into whispers and emptiness.

The lack of fear was so relaxing Percy started humming along to the whispers of the wind around him; he became one with the cold around him. The winter didn't complain.

He walked for a while, but his footsteps never faltered and his arms hung next to him, neither of them were covered in goose bumps despite the needle like pain that occasionally sprinkled them, whenever the pain came the wind howled and apology and Percy forgave it, too mesmerised to really care.

"Hello," A voice called and Percy stumbled slightly, taking cover behind a tree, hoping that reality hadn't come to claim him again so soon, it wouldn't have surprised him if it had; the Fates seemed to like to mess with him as much as possible. "Is anyone out there?" Percy sighed but walked towards the voice, the cold called him back but he shut it out, hurt, the cold blew away, Percy didn't allow himself to care.

"Yeah, it's me." Percy called out; hoping whoever found him knew who he was; the last thing he wanted was some stranger walking out to ask who 'me' is.

"Percy?" Thank the Gods. "There you are!" Now Percy was confused, had someone been looking for him? A blond head emerged from the trees and piercing grey eyes met his and Annabeth sagged in relief.

"Annabeth, what's going on with-" He waved his arm vaguely, "this?" Annabeth sighed and rubbed her temple, Percy mentally slapped himself – Jason told him they'd all had their powers taken, Annabeth included, and there he was pointing it out to her and probably making her feel even worse than she already did. "Sorry, I didn't-"

"Don't worry about it, I might not be a 'Wise-Girl' anymore but I can still answer simple questions" Percy noticed the way her eyes darkened at her old nickname and mentally slapped himself again.

"Does that mean I'm not a 'Seaweed Brain' anymore?" He hadn't liked where that conversation had been going and humour was his anchor, he hoped it would be Annabeth's too.

"Not a chance," She grinned and Percy dramatically threw his hands in the air before wiping his eyes.

"My dreams will come true one day, I shall have a new nickname better than any others-" Percy wasn't an expert at speaking like a posh person so he tried to mimic Jason as best he could, Jason would deny it until the end of the universe but the Son of Jupiter did sound like a posh bastard.

"'Shark Boy' shall be your nickname." Annabeth tapped him on his left shoulder then his right, as if knighting him, Percy grinned stupidly at that, and then he reconsidered the nickname.

"I'd rather be called anything else but that, milady." Percy shrugged as if his dislike of the nickname was completely out of his control, which was kind of the case.

"How about 'Aqua Boy'?" Annabeth shrugged, yet her eyes were shimmering and a smirk graced her tired features, the cold had almost vanished from their minds.

"Yeah, cause that's so much better." Percy snorted, Annabeth laughed at him and Percy's spirit rose slightly.

"I'm not going to call you handsome if that's what you had in mind." She slapped him on the arm, Percy hardly felt the pain, he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"You could call me 'Guapo'," Percy suggested, biting his cheek to prevent himself from grinning and giving his plan away.

"Is that just handsome in another language?" Percy reeled in his surprise at the question, he honestly thought Annabeth knew what the word meant, but then again what did he know about what was left of Annabeth's brilliant mind?

"Nope," He told her popping the 'p', Annabeth's smirk flickered slightly, before her confident smile was back on her face.

"Is it just a synonym of 'Handsome' in another language?" Annabeth huffed, Percy cursed internally, no matter how much the Gods messed with the daughter of Athena's brain, she would always outwit him, he was glad she did, it made him feel human, a feeling he hadn't known for years, until now.

"No." He said unconvincingly and Annabeth laughed throwing her head back and releasing great gasps of air towards the sky, Percy thought she was laughing at him but was she? Or was she laughing for some deeper reason than he realised?

Before he could ponder the thought any longer, Annabeth head snapped back to him and she wrapped her arms around him, Percy tensed in surprise and then relaxed, hugging her back.

"Thank you." Annabeth muttered into his shoulder, Percy narrowed his eyes and as if she could sense his confusing Annabeth continues, "Everyone else has been acting to different since Olympus, but you're still you and when I'm around you I feel like me again." Annabeth took a deep breath and her shoulders briefly shook, she held onto him a little harder.

"You are still you, Annabeth. No power could ever change who you are, sure we adapt and shift in and out of focus, but we don't change, not really." He told her gently, the words echoing around them and Percy briefly hoped his words made their way all the way back to the camp and into the ears of his friends – he hoped they understood that the shadow they had fallen under won't last forever.

* * *

 **~Thanks for Reading!**

 **Please tell me what you thought of this rewrite- did you like it? Hate it? plz let me know!**

 **P.S: There are quite a few mistakes but the grammar check I usually use won't let me log in for some reason - sorry**

 **P.P.S: I don't own anything**


	2. Chapter 2

**This is really late, I'm so sorry. I kind of forgot about this update whilst I was buried under school work.**

 **Shout outs:**

 **DemigodSassReaders: Thank you so much :)**

 **dizzydaisy37: don't worry that was intentional, but thanks for the suggestion. If you have any other suggestions don't hesitate to share them**

 **Cupcakeheart2005: Haha yeah, I hope there wasn't too much**

 **Jaylene Olebar: OMGs thank you *blushes* I really appreciate it.**

 **Disclaimer: Yeah...no I don't own this. If I did then I would have married Percy by now *_***

* * *

 **Frozen Soul**

* * *

"Quiet down everyone, ah Miss Chase and Mr Jackson, I'm glad you're here," Chiron greeted, his shoulders falling down and his eyes softening as he looked at them. Percy grinned at him and swiped a stray piece of snow off his shoulder.

"Sorry we're late, Chiron but dear Percy here was off with the fairies," Annabeth told the Centaur a fond smile on her lips. Percy pointed to himself and mouthed 'me?' at her, Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Never mind, you're here now and that's all that matters" Chiron huffed. Percy took that as his cue to take a seat around the table-tennis table; Annabeth sat opposite him and took a piece of pizza. Percy was starving and the pizza smelt better than ever but the lingering memories of his meetings with the toilets made him hesitate.

"Help yourself to the food," Chiron offered staring at Percy. There was no trace of a smile on his face and the set of his mouth was grim. Percy took a slice of the pepperoni pizza and leant back in his plastic chair – Chiron seriously needed to upgrade their meeting room. The cute things about it were becoming tedious… as was Chiron's stare but Percy didn't tell the Centaur that.

"I'm sure you're aware by now why you've been called here?" Chiron began, somehow managing to look at no one yet everyone in the same moment. "This…. Change in weather is most peculiar and I fear that someone with ill intentions sent it here," he said solemnly.

"Uh oh the war of the Snow Men has come," Percy muttered, next to him Jason huffed and pinched his elbow, Percy suspected it was a subtle him to be quiet but hints weren't exactly his strong suit nor was silence.

"What was that you said Perseus?" Chiron asked innocently, Percy took a bite of his pizza. "That's what I thought; anyway I think we should prepare for what might come,"

"What do you mean 'what might come'?" Leo asked "what's coming? I mean snow isn't that bad unless… oh man, it might be Khione, she's coming for me!" Leo placed his hand on his forehead and swooned dramatically.

"Why would she come for you?" Will Solace asked, cocking his head to the side in a very Nico way. Percy tried not to think about it.

Percy flicked his hair and grinned at Will, "Because he's worth it." Leo nodded vigorously, betting his own brown locks.

"You two are horrible," Jason informed them gravely.

"I'm offended" Percy replied, making a show of scrunching his face up and widening his eyes in mock hurt. Jason pinched him on the arm again. Percy kicked him in response.

"Ouch! Jackson!" The son of Jupiter hissed, bending over to clutch his leg.

"I didn't kick you that hard, princess" Percy muttered, taking another bite of his now slightly cold pizza chewing it slowly as he silently tried to coax it into warming up again. That would be a cool power, just imagine being the child of the God/Goddess of Pizza that would be so cool.

"Oi Prissy pay attention," Clarisse snapped, slamming her hands down on the table as she glared at him.

"Opps sorry, I was thinking about pizza powers" Percy apologised solemnly, the room fell silent. It was awkward, very awkward.

"I'm not even going to ask. Clarisse, please continue," Chiron signed waving a hand at Clarisse. The daughter of Ares sent Percy another suspicious look. Percy waved at her with his pizza as a response, grinning like a mad man.

"We should increase the patrols of the perimeter and spend more time training the younger and less experienced campers," She suggested.

"Good idea. Should we contact the Romans and the Hunters?" Jason asked eyes wistful as he thought about his Roman brothers and sisters. Percy could relate; he missed the people he'd met at Camp Jupiter.

"The Romans we should definitely contact as we might not be the only people targeted. But leave the hunters for now." Chiron informed them. Percy frowned.

"Why are you all assuming that we're going to get attacked? We've been attacked by people with ice powers before and they've done much worse than just make it snow, this might be natural." Percy asked. Annabeth glanced at him with a strange expression on her face, one that Percy couldn't place.

"It doesn't snow here Percy," Jason told him, speaking slowly as if he was a child. Percy clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"I know that Grace, but things are hardly normal here at the moment. Who know what the Gods are up to," He elaborated. His friends' faces fell and Chiron pinched his nose. Percy mentally prepared himself for whatever it was they were going to tell him by finishing his ice cold pizza.

"What do you mean Percy?" Lou Ellen asked him, leaning forward in her seat. Across the table, Annabeth shook her head at him.

"He just means that the war has left everyone a bit on edge, the gods included," Piper said smoothly. Percy blinked at her then panned his gaze across to Lou Ellen, then back again. His mind clicked and a cynical laugh left his lips.

"You haven't told them have you?" He smirked. He wasn't sure why he cared so much, he could see why they didn't tell anyone what had occurred on Olympus but the realisation still forced a veil of anger over his mind.

"Told us what?" Conner Stoll asked looking at his brother suspiciously. Percy opened his mouth to explain but before he got the chance Chiron had wheeled his wheelchair over to him and grabbed his shoulder in a grip that made him hiss silently.

"Percy, a minute please," Chiron asked practically dragging Percy out of his chair. He grabbed another piece of pizza as he left the room.

"Percy, I think you and I need to talk," The centaur began as he shoved Percy into a chair on the porch of the big house. Somehow, the view of the new winter wonderland made Percy relax and so he stared at him mentor with an unimpressed look.

"Whatever about?" He asked innocently.

"Not now, Jackson please," Chiron pleaded, Percy grinned at him causing Chiron to sigh dramatically.

"Look, you've been out for a while and the events that have happened these past few days have forced us to make hard choices for the good of everyone,"

"So…. Lying to everyone is helpful?" Percy drawled his eyebrows narrowed in confusion.

"In these circumstances, yes it is," Chiron sighed. Percy stared at him in amazement.

"Wow. I'm pretty sure a psychopath said the same thing once," Percy muttered staring into the distance as he tried to remember who had said it.

"This is not a joking matter Perseus," Percy knew he was in trouble again because nobody was called him Perseus ever.

"I'm not joking. I definitely heard that somewhere… maybe it was Hera," Percy explained staring at the sky suspiciously, he was immediately aware of the swirling grey clouds above them.

"Gods help me," Chiron huffed. Percy recoiled away from the irritated Centaur.

"I wouldn't ask them for help; they are really annoying," He advised and Chiron stared at his forehead as if he was trying to see straight through his skull into his brain.

"Why are you so calm about all this?" Chiron wondered resting his head in his hands as he stared at his student.

"I think it's called insanity but I'm not sure," Percy shrugged smiling at his mentor with wide eyes hoping that the man would catch on.

"You're not insane Percy," Chiron soothed placing a warm, comforting hand on Percy's knee but Percy didn't feel reassured.

"I don't want to be. I didn't realise I was until…" He trailed off catching himself before he said something stupid or stupider than he had already.

"Until what?" Chiron enquired and suddenly Percy was in an interrogation room.

"It doesn't matter, besides I really don't think you dragged me out of that room to talk about this so please move on," Percy waved vaguely in the air, Chiron's forehead crinkled but he gladly opened his mouth to explain.

"Chiron! We need your help!" A young Hermes camper cried running across the snow his face red from the cold.

"What's going on?" He asked getting out of the wheelchair and changing into his horse form, the young camper's eyes widened in wonder.

"This way!" He cried pivoting on his heel and sprinting away, Percy followed him the snow crunching under his feet. He supposed that if one good thing came out of the strange weather it was that monsters would have a hard time sneaking up on them.

They ran a little while longer before they rounded a corner and entered the amphitheatre. 'Are we going to watch a performance?' Percy wondered. He allowed his gaze to scan the group of campers huddled in the centre of the room before he found himself moving towards them and elbowing his way to the front as gently as he could.

"Gods help us all," Chiron gasped before ordering all the campers to leave and go back to their cabins. Percy stood in a confused daze as he stared at what was in front of them.

It was beautiful, a fusion of every colour and almost orb shaped except that it kept stretching in other directions as if trying to break free. It moved to hover in Percy's eye line and so he took a safe step back.

"It's been a long time since I've seen one of those," Chiron whispered grabbing Percy's shoulder and pulling him away. In his mind, he wondered why everyone was manhandling him but he didn't dwell on the thought.

"What is it?" He asked not taking his eyes off it. Chiron didn't answer straight away but he did pull Percy behind him despite his protests that he wasn't scared of a disco ball.

"I don't know, but last time I saw one…" Chiron trailed off.

"That was a bit ominous," Percy noted letting his gaze shift away from the ball to stare at Chiron with one eyebrow raised.

"It was supposed to be," Chiron replied not looking at him.

"Good, for a moment I was worried you were being cliché and vague like you have been a hundred times before," Percy huffed moving around the Centaur in an attempt to get a better look at whatever the heck was hovering in front of them but Chiron stepped in his path.

"I don't know what it is but I do know it's bad. Don't touch it. Don't go near it. Don't even think about it," He instructed, Percy stared at him.

"Chiron you've been training children for how long now? And you still haven't figured out that to demigods 'don't' just means 'don't get caught whilst…'" Percy said amazed.

"I have figured that out I just hoped that you were mature enough to listen to me for once," Chiron snapped.

"Well you were horrifically wrong," Percy sighed sending Chiron a pitiful look. "I wonder what would happen if you lick it,"

"Go back to your cabin Perseus," Chiron instructed ageing ten years in a manner of seconds; at least Percy assumed that was what happened going off on the wrinkles on Chiron's forehead.

"Will do," Percy nodded turning around and obediently turning around and leaving, he was getting too old for the faff that was the life of a Demigod.

"Come back here Perseus," Chiron sighed and Percy grinned.

"Will do," he repeated and walked back towards the Centaur who looked at him with a mix of fondness and annoyance. The later was a lot more prominent than the former.

"Get closer to it," Chiron mumbled his voice wispy and far away. Percy didn't move closer he put a hand on Chiron's arm and shook him slightly, concerned.

"Chiron? Are you ok?" He asked gently. Chiron snapped out of his daze and grabbed Percy and ran out of the amphitheatre.

"Percy, did you touch it?" Chiron demanded once he'd stopped running his eyes wide.

"What? No of course not: I never do what you tell me anyway," Percy smiled. Chiron sighed in relief and released Percy's arm. For safety purposes, Percy put his hands in his pockets.

"We need to close the theatre off and tell the gods about this," Chiron told him galloping off to who knows where. Percy was left standing as more snow began falling around him. A cold wind blew past and Percy swayed dangerously from its strength, was that normal?

Another wind blew past much stronger than the last and Percy was ripped off his feet and slammed into the dirt. He gave a cry of surprise before he was being dragged back to the amphitheatre, back to that thing.

"Percy!" A voice cried and something grabbed his round the waist and hauled him back to safety. Percy didn't look at his saviour he merely laughed hysterically and buried his head in his knees because he was just attacked by the wind and that was funny right? He wasn't insane, that just happened.

"Oh hell, are you ok?" The voice asked and Percy shook his head he laughed violently and got to his feet ignoring the questions being fired at him by the person who saved him from the wind, he should say thank you, after all, his mum didn't teach him manners for nothing.

He threw a 'thanks' over his shoulder as he walked back to cabin three, laughing the entire way. Once he made it back to his cabin of isolation he crawled under the bed and hid like the brave Hero of Olympus he was.

 _Knock Knock_

"Perce?" The door opened and Leo strolled in like he owned the place. Percy held his breath. 'You can't see me' he mental told Leo, who apparently wasn't telepathic as his gaze panned around the room and down to the floor and… "Are you hiding?"

"Uhh no," Percy told him curling up smaller in an attempt to vanish.

"It looks like you are," Leo pointed out face going red as he tried not to laugh.

"Looks can be deceiving," Percy shot back, retreating further under the bed as Leo took a step closer.

"True. What are you doing?" Leo asked as Percy mentally stabbed himself for not locking the door.

"I'm…. Getting acquainted with the bottom of this bed… it's nice to talk to." He told Leo seriously as the son of Hephaestus s grin grew.

"Have you ever heard the phrase 'stop while you're ahead'?" Leo wondered sitting down to get a better look at the 'fearless' demigod.

"No, I haven't," Percy replied getting comfortable in his hiding place, tracing patterns on the bad.

"I can tell," Leo snickered finally giving into the laughed that plagued him; Percy didn't join in as his face burned in embarrassment.

"I wish I had a camera!" Leo gasped out as Percy's eyes widened in horror.

"Do that and I'll cut your hands off," he threatened with no heat but Leo gulped and shuffled away.

"Do that and I'll cut your head off," Leo countered.

"With no hands?" Percy frowned, Leo's eyes narrowed.

"With my awesomeness," Leo declared slicking his hair back and pouting like a teenage girl.

"Oh you poor child," Percy cooed and Leo slapped him on the arm, his poor arm.

"Shut up Jackson," Leo huffed. Percy shut up. "Ok, this is getting awkward." Still, Percy didn't say anything, "Really awkward" the awkwardness continued, "This is unbearable you can talk again," Leo threw his hands in the air dramatically.

"That was torture, I can't imagine being unable to speak," Percy sighed rolling over onto his side and curling up into a ball with a content sigh, suddenly very tired.

"You ok Percy?" Leo asked cautiously, his voice unnaturally serious for his usual excitable demeanour.

"I don't know Leo," Percy replied as he fell into Morpheus' arms.

He hated Demigod dreams.

Scratch that, he hated dreams that involved anything creepy and supernatural which contained the key to everything. So, of course, he forgot everything the second he woke up.

He shot up, whacking himself in the face because that's just how Percy Jackson does things. Then he lay back down gasping for breath and his heart hammering in his chest as memories trickled from his grasp like stray pieces of sand. Normally he would've had the brains to try to latch onto any of the remaining memories but he was probably concussed so he was past doing the normal and logical thing.

"What the actually Hades?" He asked himself rubbing his forehead as he rolled out from his hiding place, distantly he noticed the blanket that had been draped over him and felt a wave of embarrassment and gratitude but then his head gave another painful throb and his emotions were overcome by self-loathing.

"Percy you are an idiot," he muttered to the empty cabin, he felt a twang of annoyance at the comment. "And now you are talking to yourself… great," He sighed opening his window and grabbing a handful of snow and pressing it to his forehead with a fair amount of cursing. The pain dulled slightly as his pain senses picked up on the cold making him shiver and take cover under his duvet. It was honestly a miracle he'd made it that far in life.

The snow melted in his hand leaving a mushy liquid in his hand. The liquid made him thirsty and he began to think longingly for a Diet Coke *****. So he reluctantly rolled out of bed and plodded off to the toilet to take care of morning business before the hunt for the drink began, it didn't take him long to find an open and half full can of coke, Percy sipped it experimentally before shrugging and downing the rest, it was a bit flat but he was so thirsty he didn't really mind.

Rolling his shoulders, he panned his gaze around the room before his eyes fell on a paper bag by his door; Percy blinked at it and cautiously stepped closer.

"Please don't be a bomb," He pleaded as he opened it and pulled out the stuff inside. "You've got to be kidding," I was clothes… winter clothes, even worse it was orange winter clothes. What was it with orange at Camp? It was weird and slightly uncomfortable. The clothes were simple: an orange, thick, waterproof jacket with a long sleeved Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and blue thick trousers.

The worst part was the shoes, they vaguely resembled climbing boot aside for the colour which was orange sadly. Actually, the saddest part was that Percy had really small feet so typically he had shoes that were too big**. He would have to stuff them full of newspaper to make the fit, he didn't want to but what else was he supposed to do? Casually tell Chiron that his feet were so small he couldn't actually walk in the shoes? Yeah, he's not doing that.

Hopeful he tried to shoes on, just to check that there was no way for him to fit in the shoes, the second he tied them both up they shrank down to fit his feet perfectly.

"Huh, that's convenient," he noted as he took them off again and got changed into the new outfit except for the jacket, instead he wore a black leather jacket that Thalia and Nico had got him for Christmas the year prior, they said that they didn't want him to feel left out of their group of 'Big Three Darkness' Percy didn't really understand what that meant but he was touched by the gift nonetheless.

The jacket clashed horrifically with the orange jumper he was wearing but he didn't really have anything else long sleeved to wear due to the fact that it was summer, surprisingly, so he didn't bring anything but t-shirts. Pulling on the weird size changing boots he ventured out into the great beyond.

"Morning Percy," Someone greeted Percy spun around trying to place a face with the voice until Jason came into view grinning. The son of Jupiter was wearing the same thing as him except for the jacket.

"Morning Jay," Percy replied as Jason pulled him into a brief bro hug. Percy wasn't a fan of hugs – he blamed Nico, the kid was a bad influence – but Jason hugged him all the time so he was used to it.

"Nice jacket, where'd you get it?" Jason asked once he released Percy.

"It was a gift," Percy responded vaguely worried about Jason's reaction if he found out that his sister had gotten Percy a super expensive jacket whilst Jason just got a Superman canvas for Christmas. Thankfully the boy let the subject drop.

"Cool, anyway there's another meeting in half an hour about the whole orb situation," Jason informed him.

"Am I invited this time, I don't think my input was appreciated last time," Percy pointed out and Jason winced.

"Yeah well… just don't say anything stupid," Jason advised. 'Well I'm screwed' Percy thought.

"Uhh yeah ok, should I pre-plan what to say then because I'm not so good at the whole serious thingy," Percy winced, so much for not saying anything stupid.

"You'll be fine," Jason dismissed.

"I'm pretty sure you said that to me right before I bled and started a war," Percy mused***.

"Chill dude, go get some food and meet us at the big house," Jason instructed walking away to, no doubt, put more gel in his hair. Percy kicked some of the snow under his boots almost certain that 'chill' was a pun.

Percy strolled towards to dining pavilion taking in the beauty of the sights as he walked; the way the trees were covered in frost was strangely magical. But another gust of wind had him speed walking the rest of the way.

Percy entered the pavilion, lingering by the hearth for a heartbeat before he sat down at the Poseidon table cupping his hands together and blowing warm air into them trying to coax some life back into his fingertips. He guessed that it took a total of ten seconds before Annabeth had moved to sit opposite him, Chiron had become a lot more lenient with where they sat after finding out that his way of grouping campers was kind of parentist which wasn't a word but Percy didn't care.

"Hi," Percy greeted. "What brings you here?" He asked her, from the look on her face she hadn't just moved for social purposes.

"Leo told me about yesterday," she stated, Percy muttered 'traitor' under his breath, "Are you ok?" She asked him.

"Why does everybody keep asking that? I'm fine," He told her, slightly miffed.

"Because we worry about you," she replied reaching over to grab his hand, she managed to squeeze it once before he pulled away. He didn't mind people touching his arms but his hands were a big no-no after Tartarus. The scars from grabbing onto that cliff had never faded nor had his regret for not being strong enough to save them from the fall.

"Percy…." Annabeth trailed off her eyes flashing with hurt that just made the hurricane of grief inside him grow.

"I'm sorry, it's just hard," he tried to explain but it fell short at the look of pity she sent his way, the look of 'poor boy' he'd grown up with that look and hated it with a burning passion. He scowled at her quickly and the look faded.

"Just let us in Percy, let me in. You used to tell me everything why has that changed?" She asked sounding very hurt, the storm of grief grew as did the howling of the wind around them.

"Because I've forgotten how to trust people; I've forgotten who I can trust," he snapped and got to his feet, his appetite gone and stormed out into the cold.

Annabeth called after him but he couldn't reply. He let his feet lead the way as he descended into his thoughts, as always they consisted of self-loathing and regret but he was used to it by now. He'd long since learnt that pain doesn't go away you just make room for it.

He walked back towards his cabin and was almost there before he remembered that he needed to attend that stupid meeting otherwise he would be bodily dragged there. So he took a U-turn and headed back to the Big House, taking a route that wouldn't make him walk through the pavilion like a twat.

He was ten minutes late but nobody's perfect so stop judging. He entered to meeting room avoiding everybody's gaze as he took his usual place. He noticed the lack of pizza and muttered a 'damn' under his breath and turning to Chiron.

"Your tardiness is becoming tiresome Percy," Chiron said as a 'hello' Percy didn't let himself get offended.

"So are these meetings," He shot back playing with the zip on his jacket.

"Did your new coat displease you?" Chiron asked.

"It was orange Chiron, why would you force innocent children to wear such a colour?" He cried dramatically, pulling at the bottom of his jumper for emphasis.

"Is blue better?" Leo huffed looking at his own coat with disgust.

"Anything's better," Percy told him and the two of them nodded at each other like business partners. Before anyone could yell at them a camper came charging into the room and ran to hide under the table.

"Alrighty then," Percy muttered whilst they all gawked at the boy.

"What's going on?" Jason asked the terrified camper gently they all leant closer.

"It's coming!" The boy cried curling up tighter into a ball, shaking slightly.

Before they could ask more questions the entire roof was ripped off and was swallowed by a glowing light, Percy drew Riptide as if the pen would save him, it wouldn't.

"What the flipping…" Leo cried before he was flung into a wall by an invisible force and slumped to the ground with a loud groan.

"Leo!" Annabeth shouted crouching by the fallen boy and putting her two fingers against his neck, her eyes closed in relief. The storm got worse as the floor beneath them began to get ripped apart; Percy dived to the side to avoid falling into the dark pit beneath them.

Dark Pit.

No, not again.

Percy's vision blurred as panic rose in him, he couldn't breathe.

"Come on little Demigods"

No please no, not again. Please not again.

"Lovely sacrifices," A voice purred all too familiar.

Green eyes stared at him, the colour the same as the trees, the grass, the earth.

Percy vision cleared for a single moment and he saw the light of the orb. The colour of Annabeth's eyes, Leo's fire, Hazel's mist, Frank's fur, Jason's eyes, Piper's lips and Percy's eyes.

The light swallowed him whole.

It didn't hurt as much as he thought it would, he thought it would be like bathing in the Styx or drinking from the Phlegethon but it was warm, then cold.

It was icy cold to the extent he couldn't feel anything but his own breath passing through his lips and the uncomfortable scratch of leather against his skin.

He woke up to grey eyes staring down at him and blond hair tickling his forehead, his energy started depleting immediately so he focused his energy on his words.

"Not my fault," then he fell under again.

The next time he opened his eyes he was alone which was both a relief and slightly painful but he sat up anyway. The sunlight shone through his window and lit the cabin in an unearthly light blinding him slightly as he stood. He was back in his cabin thankfully, he was sick of the camp infirmary.

A vase of flowers sat on his bedside table; he took a step closer to them and saw a note next to them.

Dear Lady Perseus,

Nice faint dude

Leo

Percy grinned at the utterly Leo note looking at the flowers again and noting that they weren't even in water, they must've been from the Demeter cabin. He looked at them for a few more seconds before he headed the bathroom to take care of business.

He barely got half way there before he tripped over something and slammed into the floor. A weird sound followed the action like shattering glass. Slowly he got to his hands and knees and stared at the floor which was covered in ice. Beautiful, smooth, blue, white and purple ice in the shape of a giant snowflake that he was right in the centre of, his hands were glowing and his gut was clenched slightly just like it was usually after he controlled water. But he didn't have his awesome water powers anymore; he was normal.

So why did he feel so strong? Why did he feel so dangerous?

* * *

 **That took way too long to write, sorry.**

 **Thank you for reading! :D**

 **Please tell me what you think, it really does help.**

 ***Other soft drinks are available**

 **** I have small feet and want to share my pain even if Percy doesn't have small feet. Does anyone else suffer from small feet?**

 ***** This didn't happen but lets imagine it did, ok?**

 **Until next time,**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello and welcome, ah, it's been a while hasn't it? Sorry about that. This chapter's a little bit shorter than the others, sorry.**

 **Shout outs:**

 **SpencerDorman: I'm really happy to hear that. I like this much better as well.**

 **SunnySideSofie: Aww thank you so much. That's a great tactic, thank you. Don't worry I have no intention of leaving this story unfinished.**

 **Nolifeking222: Just want to say that I love your user name XD. Thank you, I shall!**

* * *

Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon was suffering from a mild case of major freak out.

Not just a slight freak out, a full on hyperventilating-and-making-strange-noise-freak-out. Percy supposed that, once again, he should be grateful for his lack of siblings; it made life an awful lot easier.

So Percy continued to panic until he got bored of it, honestly how did the Aphrodite children keep up with the crying and screeching for so long, their record was a week of weeping which was pretty impressive. With one last shaky breath he clambered to his feet using the desk as support, somehow he managed to catch himself on the corner in a typical Percy fashion.

He felt no more than a flash of pain before the cold set in, only it wasn't really cold more like he could fell the goose bumps on his arms, he could feel that it was cold but he couldn't feel the usual tightness in his lungs, nor could he feel the usual bite of the winter wind on his body. The cold wove its way around the room like the stroke of a brush over the walls.

A sprinkle of frost coated the walls curling onto the desk, cautiously touching his fingertips as if he was an injured deer. Percy ripped his hand away immediately, held it close to his chest and took a couple slow steps back.

'What the heck?' he mumbled rubbing his fingertips over his eyelids half expecting mist to fall from his eyes, after all, everything that was going on had to be part of some wicked trick, right? Percy slapped a palm over his forehead, covering his eyes in the process, and peaked through his fingers staring at the lingering frost with a mix or horror and slight awe. He flinched at the sight closing his eyes again, his position was pretty much the same as the one he'd made whilst watching the ending of the Titanic.

'Ok, fine, I can fix this' he told himself firmly running his hands through his hair half hoping that the action would shake the memories of the past few seconds of his life, but the other half of him was yearning to play around with whatever the hades was inside of him. He really wanted to know what it could do and, more importantly, what it even was.

He dismissed the urge as soon as it struck him, he didn't want to play around with things he didn't understand. Ok, that was a total lie – he really wanted to do that – but he was afraid. He wasn't entirely sure what he was afraid of; he only knew that it was scary. Hence the whole, you know, being cared.

Percy's brain finally snapped into gear and he began to plan how he was going to fix the problem before him. Ice, what gets rid of ice? The warmth, yeah that seemed right, how did one create warmth? With a Leo Valdez, nope scrap that - he was _not_ going to bring Leo the human flint and steel into the equations after all:

Leo + x = bad things.

See, he did pay attention during algebra classes. Percy tried to solve the puzzle again. One could create warmth with something warm. Yeah, no shit, anyway, warmth…an oven? No ovens were very bad, a kettle? Oh, yeah he could use his awesome water powers! Oh wait…

Percy slammed his palm to his forehead so glad that there were no telepathic demigods. Percy frowned at the ice on the table pinching his chin in an attempt to create the image of a great 'I'm thinking face' he was almost certain he was failing miserably but let it slide.

Eventually he let his shoulders slump and went in search of something, aside from Leo, that created warm. The snow let out a pained crunch beneath his feet as he stepped out of his cabin. The sun was setting over the camp illuminating it a holy glow. Percy trekked across the landscape his gaze flickering over everything as he tried to take in the beauty around him.

"Hey Percy," Jason greeted jogging slightly to catch up with the shorter Demigod.

"Hey," Percy mumbled back his mind focused on a squirrel that was legging it across the pathway.

"Are you sure you should be up? You kind of blacked out earlier," Jason asked as if Percy had somehow forgotten the traumatising events of the past day.

"I pass out so often it hardly fazes me anymore," Percy dismissed. "Besides, if you took a day long rest every time you blacked out nobody would ever see you," He continued grinning at Jason sweetly.

"Shut up, Jackson," Jason growled a light blush dusting his cheeks. Percy laughed shaking his head as he kept moving.

"But are you feeling ok?" Jason inquired voice laced with concern that was strangely touching.

"Two things: one, my name is not 'but'," Jason sent him a withered look. "Two, I'm fine, honestly."

"If you say so," Jason muttered not sounding very convinced. Percy left him to his unconvincedness, no that isn't a real word and no, he didn't care.

"I do say so," Percy confirmed pausing to stare at a snowman that had some rather interesting, urg, features.

"I'm guessing that Leo built that?" Percy questioned cocking (bad pun) his head to the side.

"How did you figure that one out?" Jason snorted.

"Did he try to make it look like himself?" Percy asked.

"No way, he's not that manly," Jason laughed out right; Percy sent him a weird look.

"And how do you know that?" Percy took a safe step back as Jason flushed scarlet. Behind them Chiron wheeled up to them, his gaze flickered from them, to the snowman and then to its 'accessorises' and back again. Percy felt his face morph into a look of horror.

"Wait- no" Percy tried but Chiron simply muttered an exasperated 'teenagers' under his breath and left. Jason elbowed Percy in the gut making the latter double over.

"That was your fault." Jason declared with the might of his father. Percy snapped his head to the boy with a ludicrous expression on his face.

"How was that my fault?" Percy demanded trying to look anywhere but at the snowman.

"It just is, ok," Jason sighed walking away. Percy shook his head and jogged after the son of Jupiter.

"Of course, everything that goes wrong in life is entirely my fault," Percy nodded accepting his position in society with honour.

"I'm glad we agree," Jason hummed sounding anything but glad.

"Aw, has your precious reputation been shattered? And by a lowly mortal of all people, urg, how will you go on?" Percy leant against a tree draping a hand over his forehead dramatically.

"Wow, you get more and more sarcastic as the day goes by," Jason drawled sounding very unimpressed with Percy's Oscar worthy performance. Percy gave him a thumbs up before strolling further down the path, he had forgotten what he was looking for but it was hardly that important anyway, he hoped it wasn't anyhow.

"So, where are you going?" Percy asked his friend yawning as he spoke.

"I was actually looking for Chiron," Jason answered, Percy clicked his tongue sympathetically.

"Ah, I'm guessing you have no intention of talking to him until the next century," Percy nodded grabbing a handful of snow off the floor and rubbing it with his fingers, the cold didn't affect him at all – he couldn't _feel_ it.

"At least," Jason groaned burying his face in his hands before snapping his gaze to Percy, the son of Poseidon shifted uncomfortably under Jason's scrutiny. "Why aren't you embarrassed?"

"You want to know my secret?" Jason nodded slowly. "I'm as thick as the lenses in your glasses." Percy explained once he made sure nobody was nearby – he didn't want anyone to hear his deepest secret.

Jason stared at him with a look of fear on his face before ripping his glasses of a manhandling the lenses. Percy clicked his tongue and fingers in sync pointing at Jason with the same hand before walking ahead, towards the training arena.

Jason didn't follow him. Percy wasn't sure whether to be relieved or sad, he went with relieved. As he approached the arena he heard the familiar clash of metal on metal.

"Oi, you little brat, you're going to pay for that!" A voice screamed. Percy assumed that Clarisse was the one fighting; is there was screaming around Clarisse was usually nearby.

"Stop bullying children," Percy scolded as he entered. Clarisse glared at him from her position in the centre of the arena, a couple of kids cowered in the corner faces red.

"Did I ask for your opinion, Prissy?" Clarisse growled shifting her spear in her hand, for a moment Percy feared she would impale him with it.

"I don't know, did you?" Percy called back as he strolled over the weapon rack, he didn't really need to – he had a magic returning pen/sword after all – but since the war he had been trying to learn to use other weapons, just in case.

"No, I didn't," She shouted at him, Percy felt his hair ruffle as the two kids sprinted out of the arena, Percy sent an amused look over his shoulder at Clarisse who looked slightly offended. "Am I really that bad?" She asked him lowering her spear.

"Eh, you're ok, I suppose," he shrugged unsure what possessed him to complement the daughter of Ares.

"You 'suppose'," Clarisse repeated taking a dangerous step towards him, Percy didn't even flinch.

"That was a complement, you probably aren't familiar with them," Clarisse looked murderous. "With your, um, lovely personality,"

"Excuse me?" Percy gave her a smile. He wrapped a hand around a dagger hilt and swung it around to clash with Clarisse's spear. She gave a roar of fury as Percy cackled, trying to get used to the unfamiliar weight of the new weapon.

Clarisse swung her spear at him again making him have to roll under her opposite arm to avoid certain death. It was way too late in the evening to be faffing about with death. Percy didn't get a chance to tell her before she swung her leg under his. He easily flipped over it, ok, he thought, let's end this.

He feigned a strike at her face with the dagger but swung his foot and hit her in the back of her knee sending her to a kneeling position. With their height a bit more even, he climbed onto her back and threw his weight forward so she collapsed on the ground as he rolled off her gently. A swift kick the ribs had the girl groaning slightly.

Percy threw the dagger at the weapon rack, it embedded itself in securely. He pivoted on his heal and marched back out of the arena with a smug, "I win."

As he walked back to his cabin he could've sworn he heard her cursing him, the thought made him snicker as he opened the door.

Crap, he'd forgotten about the whole ice incident. Stupid, Percy thought to himself mentally punching himself around the face. Luckily the frost had all but melted, he wasn't sure how but he wasn't going to complain. The floor was still scarred with a giant snowflake which was definitively not lucky.

Percy didn't think that there was a rug shop nearby so he couldn't cover it up; he was all out of ideas. Suddenly, a weird instinct woke up within him and he found himself crossing the distance to the snowflake with a few short strides and then he was kneeling beside it.

He placed two hands on it, still not entirely sure what he was doing, and closed his eyes. A warmth opened up within him and he sucked in a gently breath letting the new feeling course through him. After a few seconds the feeling left him, cringing, he opening one eye and promptly collapsed onto his back with relief.

A laugh slipped past his lips, painfully loud in the screaming silence; the snowflake was gone. The floor was smooth and warm as he stretched on it, spread eagle.

Eventually, his ADHD kicked in and lying on the floor became intolerable so he stumbled to his feet with a tad more swagger in his movements than was strictly necessary, not that he really cared.

 _Knock Knock_

"Come in," Percy called as he sat on the edge of his bed.

"Hiya dude!" Percy groaned.

"Wow, that's actually really rude," Leo gasped sounding hurt or rather sounding like he was trying to sound hurt.

"I was trying to be rude, I'm practising my Jason impression," Percy pressed his thumb and index finger together to make a circle with them on both hands, he then placed the circles over his eyes and pouted, "How's this?"

"Very accurate," Leo complemented grinning.

"Thanks," Leo continued to stare at him. "I don't mean to be rude but, what do you want?"

"Oh, Chiron is calling another meeting," Leo informed him.

"After the great success of the last one I'm not that surprised," Percy grumbled crossing his hands over his chest.

"Yeah, this meeting's topic is last meeting in fact, and me, of course," Leo pushed out his chest in pride.

"Of course," Percy echoed standing up to follow the son of Hephaestus out of his cabin. As he slammed the door a mountain of snow tumbled off the roof coating them in white powder.

"Oh sugar," Leo cried as he was knocked off his feet, Percy wasn't far behind him.

"I don't think this is sugar," Percy exclaimed dramatically.

"Haha, hilarious," Leo grumbled trying, and failing, to get to his feet. "See, I can do a Jason impression too!" Leo grinned, Percy laughed shaking his head.

After a tragically long time, the two demigods managed to escape their snowy prison. Percy was quite proud of the fact he got to his feet before Leo managed to get to his; it was the little things in life that mattered, after all.

"Aw, we're late," Leo groaned running a hand through his snow covered locks. "Chiron is going to be so annoyed," Leo continued hobbling down the path to the Big House.

"Since when did you care about being late?" Percy asked.

"Since Chiron ordered three pizzas for the meeting," Leo exclaimed. Needless to say the two of them walked a lot faster after that particular piece of important information.

Once they arrived, the two boys practically flew into their seats, not that there was a seating plan really but everyone sort of accidently claimed a seat after the first meeting after Gaea's attack.

"Please try to be on time to the next meeting Percy," Chiron greeted. Percy ignored him in a typical teenage fashion.

"It wasn't his fault," Leo complained sitting two seats away from Percy, next to Jason.

"According to Mr Grace over here everything is my fault," Percy informed them solemnly.

"Let's not get too distracted. Annabeth, please start us off," Chiron nodded at the daughter of Athena.

"We have spoken to the Romans over at Camp Jupiter, nothing," Annabeth told them, Percy wasn't sure if she was being intentionally vague or not. "Everything over there is completely normal,"

"Well, as normal as a camp of demigods can be," Leo confirmed grabbing a slice of pizza from the box. It was Hawaiian this time, Percy's personal favourite.

"Indeed. We need to think about the safety of the campers," Chiron pressed his lips together thoughtfully.

"Why don't we just close the camp for the winter, or at least to those who have homes to go to?" Percy suggested thinking longingly of his small apartment and of his mother who he had barely seen at all the past year.

"No way," Clarisse dismissed instantly staring at him as if he just suggested they migrate to the moon.

"Why not, the weather is only limited to the camp, right?" He asked. Annabeth nodded. "Ok, why are we putting them in potential danger when the rest of the world is safe?"

"Because it's not safe out there," Clarisse waved her hand in the air as if the gesture cleared up all the confusion clouding Percy's mind, it didn't.

"You said that it's not safe in here so why are we forcing campers to stay?" Percy tried again straightening his spine to stare at the daughter of Ares.

"In case you've forgotten, Prissy, there are monsters everywhere," Clarisse snapped face going red.

"Well nah," Percy drawled. "I think I know that better than you do,"

"Really, It sometimes seems like you're oblivious to everything but your own problems," Clarisse shot back, Percy bared his teeth at the girl slapping away Jason's hand as the boy tried to grab his shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Percy growled out leaning forward in his seat.

"I mean that you've done nothing but mope since you came back from your 'legendary quest'," A sliver of envy leaked into her voice.

"Aw, do you feel left out?" Percy cooed his face twisting into something uncomfortably wicked, around them the temperature seemed to drop.

"Do you think I wanted to come with you? No way, I would rather rot in hell. I suppose you know what that's like?" Percy flinched as if struck.

"Clarisse that's enough," Chiron snapped watching Percy wearily, as if he was about to blow up.

"Yes I do know what that's like," Percy confirmed completely blocking everyone but Clarisse from his mind.

"Yeah, because you're the all-powerful demigod, the one who saved us all," Clarisse mocked standing up menacingly. "You think you're a hero, well you are wrong. Do you know why we can't let the campers leave? It's because of you," Percy blinked, stunned.

"What?" He whispered his legs weakening beneath him even as he leant back in his seat.

"You keep having flash backs and when you do your powers get out of control. And every time your around someone they get hurt, we can't have you killing any more people," Clarisse continued.

"I haven't killed anyone," Percy mumbled as he lowered his gaze to his hands.

"You killed Beckendorf, Michael, Silena, Ethan and Luke," Clarisse disagreed. Visions flashed before his eyes, Luke on the floor on Olympus, the explosion on board the Andromeda. He saw mutated bodies and blank eyes, he shivered.

"That wasn't my fault," Percy tried but his voice was weak even to his own ears.

"Yes it was. It's always your fault. You're a monster, Prissy, you're a bomb. You are poison,"

"No I'm not," he muttered anger sliced through him and for once he welcomed it.

"You should've died in their place," Clarisse shouted. A bunch of campers were gathered outside of the meeting room by now – he could hear their muttered words.

"You're wrong," He growled.

"Am I? Why isn't anyone defending you? Because they are all thinking the same things as me," she was right, Percy realised, of course she was. What had he ever done to earn the loyalty of anyone? He was poison.

"Shut up," He shouted, the wind roared in his ears and ice filled his veins.

"Who's next Perseus? Me? Or Leo, Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, Annabeth. It could be anyone, you monster," She screeched.

"I said SHUT UP!" He shot to his feet and slammed his fists down on the table. Ice erupted from his palm covering the table in deadly spears. He could hear the children screaming outside.

"I knew it," Clarisse declared. She shot everyone a victory look but the expression vanished into mild fear when she met Percy's glare.

"Shut your mouth before I make you," He threatened not caring that people were panicking, he couldn't bring himself to notice the way everyone darted away from him

"I'm not afraid of you," Clarisse's voice told him otherwise.

"Stop it Percy," Chiron ordered. "You're scaring everyone,"

An animalistic cackle left his lips, "Gods-damned right you should be scared of me,"* ice curled around the room shattering windows and destroying the wood of the once beautiful house. Clarisse took a wise step back.

"What are you?" She demanded picking up her spear as if the meagre weapon was even a slight match against him, how sweet.

"A monster," Percy answered flipping the table at her, or rather, he used the ice to flip the table at her.

"Percy, please don't do this," Jason whispered, pleading with him as if he was the enemy. Just like that the anger and hatred faded into horror.

"I didn't- no – I" The words jumbled together into a mush of meaningless sounds. He lowered his hands and shook his head slowly a strand of hair fell into his eyes, unlike the rest of his raven hair the single strand was white.

 _What are you?_

 _You are poison_

 _You are a monster_

His heart felt dead, was it even still beating? He couldn't tell anymore. His vision flickered in and out of focus. Across the table Clarisse clambered to her feet, a large gash covered her forehead. Red liquid clotted in her eyebrows.

"I'm so sorry," He began but the words did nothing to sooth her pain nor did they stop the guilt from consuming him.

He didn't know what to do so he did the only thing that felt safe; the only thing that prevented him from hurting anyone else.

Percy ran.

* * *

 **A.N: And finally the ball is rolling and the plot can begin *evil cackle* I'm so excited for the rest of this story! It's weird to think that this 13k words is equivient to about 1K in the original XD. I hope you are too, although it's not really gotten interesting yet it will do soon.**

 **Ok a few things:**

 **This is a dialogue and humour filled chapter but the others wont be, or at least not as heavily, so enjoy it. That being said, I do want to keep a bit of humour in the story but it's actually quite hard, which is weird for me because I practically live on humour alone.** **The scene with Percy, Jason and the snowman actually happened to me and a friend a couple of years ago and it was the funniest thing ever so I thought I would share it. was it a bit too much? Sorry if it was but it was really fun to write.**

 **A.A.N: There is a poll up on my profile regarding this story's pairing, if you could check it out I would really appreciate it.**

 *** This line is a line from the song 'Control' by Halsey, which is what I wrote that last third of this story to.**

* * *

 **NEXT TIME:**

 **"Tell me Demigod: Where is my son?"**

 **"We're not sure,"**

 **"Then I suggest you find him and bring him back soon before I loose my patience"**

 **(This is a draft; it may change but you get the general idea of the topic of next chapter)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello and welcome. Sorry about the long wait but life decided to give me a severe punishment, one that wasn't appreciated.**

 **Shout-Out:**

 **Dernbu: Ah, welcome. I can keep updating but I'm really slow, sorry.**

 **susan cooper: Sorry can you repeat that one more time, I didn't quite catch it. XD I'll try but I can't promise I'll be quick**

 **Peter Hale Derek Hale: (chapter 2) Thank you, I'll try.**

 **Peter Hale Derek Hale: I hope it wasn't too sad. Again, thank you.**

* * *

 _To run: [verb] to move at a speed faster than a walk, never having both or all the feet on the ground at the same time._  
 _To escape: [verb] to break free from confinement or control._  
 _To flee: [verb] to run away from a place or situation of danger_

How could three things be so similar and yet so different?  
Fleeing suggests that someone would run away in a cowardly way but 'escape' suggests a daring fight for your life.  
Which one was Percy doing? He had no clue, maybe a bit of both. He was 'fleescaping' or 'escaleeing', or he could have just been advancing in a different direction.  
See, he was simply legging it away from everyone, which was fleeing and at the same time he was escaping from their wide eyes and trembling knees. Yeah, Percy wasn't sure where his thought process was heading aside from the middle of nowhere.  
"Percy, wait!" Jason called from behind him. Percy could feel the wind pulsing against him as it tried to drag him back to camp. Percy fought like a seagull, uselessly and with the grace of a one-legged ice-skater, without a prosthetic limb. (Try to picture that, I dare you)  
"Please, Percy. Let's talk about this," Leo pleaded running a few metres behind him. Percy took a sudden left and sprinted into the thick vegetation of the forest. Annoyingly, he had to stay off the well-trodden path so his arms and legs got thrashed by the lower branches. Not to mention that the holly and needles on the forest floor seemed to have some personal vendetta against him, or he thought they did from the way they pierced through his boots.  
"Leave me alone!" Percy shouted back. His aim was to have the words come out like a lion's roar with the strength of the stormy seas, but alas he was not good at being those things; his voice came out a heartbroken sob with a rather tragic break on the last word. Gods, why couldn't he do anything the cool way?  
"No, you're our friend; we won't leave you," Jason snapped at him with a tone that was far more impressive that Percy's own. Dusk had made itself known at some point during their meeting so the trees were veiled with long shadows with thin daggers of light shone on the path, their glow did little to illuminate his way.  
Jason, with the face of thunder, suddenly darted in front of him. Percy yelped (a very manly yelp, thank you very much) and skidded to a stop. But because life is a pain in the arse, the donkey, of course. He slipped on a small puddle of slushy ice and fell face first at Jason's feet.  
Percy was having a very bad day.  
"Son of a-" Percy started.  
"Percy," Jason sighed as he reached a hand down to help the humiliated boy to his feet. Percy wasn't thick; he could see the amusement shining in the son of Jupiter's eyes, so he got to his feet by himself….and slipped again. Jason caught his elbow and helped him get to his feet. "That was very elegant, well done."  
"I live to impress," Percy muttered glaring at the snow-covered floor like muck under his shoes, it kind of was, thinking about it, especially as it had mixed with the mud on the ground giving it a rather disgusting brown hue. It looked like mud with dandruff.  
"For the love of Leo the great, you two need to slow the tartar sauce down," Leo heaved as he stumbled upon their little meeting. Percy mouthed a few of the phrases Leo had used; his head began to ache with the effort of thinking so he gave up. One had to simply go with it sometimes.  
"I don't like tartar sauce," Jason scowled. Percy straightened his spine in offence; he couldn't believe that anyone on the planet didn't like tartar sauce. Leo mouthed 'who cares?' and that was that.  
"Uh, Percy what happened back there," Leo asked after a few moments of suffocating silence. At first, Percy thought that the boy was referring to the way he fell over but them the worst thing came back: memories.  
Percy felt the air disappear from his lungs, he wondered if it was Zeus finally deciding to end his inconvenient existence. Then he saw Jason's eyes narrow fractionally and all Hades broke loose.  
Whatever had overcome him in the meeting prior to the whole debacle they were in now returned with vengeance and the temperature dropped below freezing. Leo cursed and wrapped his arms around his middle (he said something that rhymed with 'it's trucking freezing') and Jason reached out to grab his shoulder.  
Percy wrenched his entire body out of their reach, he curled in one himself as if he were nothing but a defenceless animal, although, considering the situation, he was anything but.  
"I'm sorry," Percy whispered giving his two friends a sad smile before he pivoted on his heel and ran away, yet again. Percy couldn't be sure but he didn't think that they were coming after him this time, exactly what he wanted them to do; leave him alone. So why did it hurt so much?  
It was snowing, Percy realised. Little diamonds falling from the sky with grace that rain drops couldn't even attempt to challenge. He slowed down slightly, letting the snow burrow in his hair until he was barely even jogging – no one was chasing him so why run?  
Seeing things under the snow was, well, impossible as everything looked the same. Percy could dimly remember once it had snowed in New York when he was about eight, it had been so heavy that he couldn't tell his apartment block from any of the others in the entire city. In camp it was no better; the moon shone in the sky as a silent guardian but that was the only thing that Percy could see clearly. The trees had been buried alive and the grass was gone, hidden under fifteen centre metres, give or take, of white powder.  
Usually, he would have thought something along the lines of: 'damn this snow' and he would've sulked in his cabin for days; he couldn't swim when the water was frozen. But that particular summer he thought 'this is beautiful'.  
It was so very appealing to look at and the thought was so very utterly terrifying. How was he supposed to feel ashamed for what he had done to summer and what he had done to Clarisse if he wasn't at all upset by what had happened to him? Granted, he had no idea what had happened to him but it was better than what had happened the last time an immortal being had messed with his internal wiring _(cough thanks, Hera cough)_  
That wasn't the last time thought, Percy remembered, the last time was on Olympus not long ago. Zeus had torn out their powers then ignored the fact that they even existed, that wasn't as bad as what Hera had done to him and Jason but it was still bad; Percy still wanted to slam a chair into the floor and sulk about it in a typical teenage fashion. One cannot simply be robbed of the one thing that made their life worthwhile and not give flying pigs behind.  
Percy snarled under his breath his hands curled into fists and the temperature plummeted even further, he ignored it. If he had gotten the quirks that he had from Zeus' intervention then did that mean that the others had as well?  
Around him a hurricane formed at the thought of his friends' terror, he was sure as Hades scared and so there was a high chance the others were as well.  
How would Leo react? The boy had been petrified by his original power so how would he react to getting something else. Something that didn't belong to him, Leo was so strong but he was also so afraid. Percy internally collapsed as the ground beneath him shuddered, still the reaction of the world around him didn't compute. The worry over the well-being of his friends was too loud to ignore, it was a burning fire and he felt it in every fibre of his being.  
Years of ADHD and demigod training came back at him in the space of a few seconds. Percy's mind cleared and the only thing that he could see was the details of the storm around him, he could see every little snowflake and felt the sharp bite of the wind on his skin, or rather a playful nip that resembled Mrs O'Leary's own gentle violence.  
'Calm down,' he told himself as he buried his nails into the flesh of his elbow. His sharp claws didn't pierce his skin but they did create little dents that brought him back to the present, which was good. However, the pain made the wind scream in his ears, which was not good.  
'Calm down,' he repeated the phrase over and over again until the words were as familiar as the beat of his own heart. The two words washed over him as the waves fell over the sand and drew it back into the warm depths where it was to be protected. That's what calm did to him; it brought him back from the burning fire of fear into the warmth of bliss.  
Water.  
Of course, how had he not thought about it before? Percy mental scolded himself as he opened his eyes, he was unsure when he had closed them but he supposed that it had helped him escape to his underwater mind palace.  
The storm had been banished to gods knows where Percy didn't dwell on its location but from the cold lingering beneath his skin, he had a pretty good guess. Around him, the world looked unscathed as if the storm hadn't ever been there. Wait, had it been there at all? Or was it merely a self-created illusion? Percy had no way to be sure after all; it wouldn't be the first time his mind had played tricks on him.  
'Water,' his mind reminded him.  
'Oh yeah,' Percy shook his head and walked on to the beach. Even though he was hopelessly lost in the woods he could still feel the shore to his left, a thing that made no sense. He had lost all his powers over the sea including his ability to sense water sources. That had hurt the most; it felt like he had lost a friend who had been with him for the entirety of his short, miserable life.  
Yet he could feel it again, not the same as before, though, it was a feeling of trepidation rather than comfort that swamp him the closer he came to the one thing that he had cared about. He felt afraid.  
'Pft, as if water can scare me,' Percy huffed to himself snorting at the mere thought, and yet he had been afraid of water before. Of the all-encompassing blue suffocating him and drawing him under…. Ok so he might have had a tiny, icny, wincy fear of drowning but everyone's afraid of something, right?  
Percy stopped dead in his tracks as he reached his destination. The trees seemed to part before him as the deep, midnight blue pushed all other thoughts in his head aside. The moonlight danced with the sea on the surface as Percy sank down into the sand, which wasn't as soft as the white powder behind him but was still like a bed of silk.  
Percy lay down with a content sigh, his body lost all its bones and his mind spun to a halt until he was simply part of the ever-changing wilderness around him. His deep breaths were the whispering wind and his hair was the swaying grass.  
His peace was shattered as voices drew closer. "I think he went this way, come on!" Percy cursed softly and stumbled to his feet.  
"Where are you, Jackson?" Clarisse shouted into the darkness her voice tight with anger. Percy blinked in surprise and took a step back; he couldn't believe that the girl was going to try to fight him again. Like, honestly, hadn't he beaten her up enough for one day?  
Then he saw the torches and decided that she wasn't after a fight. They shone in the darkness like the fire was being drawn straight from hell, or Tartarus, whatever.  
"Hello," Clarisse greeted as she stepped out of the safety of the forest. Percy folded his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow, waiting. "You made a big mistake,"  
"I have made a lot of mistakes in my time, please be more specific," Percy replied coldly. He took a small step back as the daughter of Ares stalked towards him.  
"You humiliated me, now you're going to suffer the consequences." Clarisse drawled. Percy broke out snickering.  
"Wow, which film did you steal that one from? Seriously, that was the best you could come up with?" Percy laughed. He wondered if he had finally made the girl angry enough to explode.  
"Oh do shut up!" Clarisse hissed raising her spear towards him. Percy didn't draw his weapon, he didn't know why but he knew that he wouldn't need it.  
A cold wind brushed against his neck from behind making him shudder not from the cold but from the invasion of his personal space. Percy turned around only to see a small patch of ice covering the sea, a small prison yet it successfully kept the uncontrollable water contained.  
An idea, small but consuming formed in his mind and he stepped onto the patch. It held him up effortlessly, what point was there in lingering where he wasn't wanted. Oblivious to what was going on before her Clarisse blabbered on about how she was going to 'strangle him with his own intestines until his neck snaps.'  
"You know, Clarisse, I'm pretty sure that a broken neck will be the least of my worries once you have opened be up and ripped out some vital organs." Yeah, she must've inherited her father's intelligence.  
A blinding pain erupted from his shoulder making him fall back onto his small icy platform with a hiss. Through the black spots that had disrupted his vision he caught sight of scarlet red liquid trickling down his arm. Percy shifted his gave to Clarisse who looked as stunned as he felt, so it wasn't her then.  
"Who's there?" Clarisse demanded into the darkness. Behind him the ocean rumbled in fury as his blood mixed with the water, Percy slapped his hand over the wound hoping that the action would stop the bleeding, but no that would've been too easy. Stars flashed across his vision, it was horrible really – how something so beautiful was used to describe pain. It must've been some kind of sick joke.  
No reply, how annoying. Percy wanted to demand answers and, more than anything, he wanted to stomp over to his attacker and give them a hard smack around the head with Riptide. Actually, multiple whacks around the head would be better, he decided.  
Percy got to his feet and then took a menacing step forward, well he tried to. The result of his action was a hurricane of blobs flickering across his vision and he stumbled to his knees. Yeah, he was really 'menacing'. Gods he was having the worst day in the history of days.  
"Don't die before I get the chance to kill you," Clarisse instructed her voice void of emotion. Percy frowned at the ice beneath him.  
"How kind you are," he sighed turning his head to inspect his wounded arm. It wasn't that bad really, just a gash from an arrow or maybe a bullet – he had never been shot before so he couldn't tell the difference.  
"Get to your feet and fight me like a man," Clarisse growled. Percy wasn't sure if that was a good thing to say or a bad thing coming from a female, you know 'fight like a man', what if he wanted to fight like a woman? He didn't, Leo would never let him forget it if he did such a thing, but hypothetically thinking…  
Clarisse took a step forward and pointed her spear between his eyes, "Come on Jackson, I haven't got all day."  
"It's night time," he pointed out. The pain dulled in his arm mildly so it felt as if a knife was stuck in his arm rather than feeling the knife was on fire. It hurt more than an injury of its size should've hurt but Percy supposed that he was weaker than he had been before.  
"Yes, I am aware of that!" Clarisse snapped her face glowing red. She looked a bit like the Minotaur, Percy snorted at the thought.  
Out of nowhere, a breeze blew past, at first it seemed gentle but as it got closer to the two of them it reformed to have the strength of a dozen angry Romans. Clarisse was thrown away from Percy along with her spear so Percy's life was no longer at risk. Percy breathed a silent thank you as he watched Clarisse get to her feet, her hair was matted like a ball of yarn and her face was flecked with sand which looked startlingly like monster remains.  
"What the Hades was that? What did you do?" She demanded, reaching for her spear. Another gust of wind stole the weapon from her muscular hands and deposited next to Percy. Percy stared at the gleaming spear point before his gave panned to Clarisse and back again. What the Hades just happened?  
"Um… that wasn't me," Percy shook his head, he regretted the action moments later when his arm gave out and affronted 'oi' in the form of pain. Thanks, arm.  
"Percy!" Leo cried from the tree line. Percy closed his eyes for a moment, mentally preparing himself, and then he looked at his friend and the many campers behind him.  
"Shit," he breathed as he scrambled to his feet and took a step back. The second he was stable on his feet Clarisse's spear flew into his hands. His audience gave out an awed gasp, just like a theatre production – annoying and unnecessary.  
"Stand down Percy, we're not going to hurt you," Annabeth soothed from her place at the front of the group. Percy fumbled with the spear for a few moments before he had it in a reasonably strong grip.  
"Stay back," he advised. The wind howled around him as if it was cheering, he could've sworn he heard 'fight, fight, fight' chanting. Or maybe Ares was watching their situation, Percy wouldn't be surprised  
"Percy, calm down," Chiron took a step forward and, as if they were dancing the waltz, Percy took a stop back. A light grew in his hands illuminating the spear in his hands until he could see every little speck of dried blood.  
The weapon began to feel heavy in his hands as ice danced across its surface. His body didn't need his consent before he raised the spear in both hands and jammed it into the sand, hard. Ice erupted upon impact, Percy couldn't bring himself to look up but the sound was enough; he could hear the ice coming from the earth or from him, it sounded like unsheathing weapons or the rustle of trees during a storm.  
Eventually, his natural curiosity consumed him and he peaked out at the jagged icicles that began from the mark the spear had made on the ground. Hundreds of them spread outwards, each a bit bigger than the last, they looked a bit like flower petals, weirdly. The biggest one was nearly as tall as he was.  
"Percy…." Annabeth breathed. She sounded afraid and upset, but she also sounded like she knew what he was going to do, and like she knew that it was the smart option.  
"I'm sorry Annabeth," Percy whispered looked up at her across the field of ice. Annabeth smiled sadly.  
"It's ok," She replied tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and straightening her spine. Percy smiled at the utterly 'Annabeth' reaction.  
"Goodbye, Wise Girl," He bowed slightly, the action was meant to be sarcastic but it came out impossibly depressing.  
"Goodbye, Seaweed Brain," And then he turned and sprinted across the ocean.  
He was running away from everyone and everything he loved, it was a stupid idea.  
He was running away from comfort and safety, so stupid.  
He was running from confinement and control, logical.  
He was running from danger, highly logical.  
What was he doing?

* * *

 **ANNABETH**

* * *

Goodbyes were awful. Saying goodbye to your best friends was like having a limb amputated. She hated it with a burning passion, although she hated sudden departures just as much, if not more.  
Last time she lost Percy it had nearly driven her insane, this time she felt numb to it all. Part of her was waiting for him to come back to her, but he wasn't going to. And she couldn't really blame him considering that a couple of Ares children had voted to chain him up if they caught him, 'caught' as if he was a prisoner or an animal.  
"We need to go to Olympus," Chiron began his voice unnaturally silent.  
"Why?" Leo asked, for a moment Annabeth thought that the boy was joking but the confusion and anger on his face had her regretting her deduction. "They did this to us. Why should we go to them and have to witness them bathe in their victory?" His voice was that of a broken stereo and his eyes a scalding city.  
"We could go yell at them," Piper croaked fiercely. Leo seemed to mull over that idea for a while before he nodded gravely looking significantly happier than he had before.  
"What are we waiting for?" She asked nobody in particular before swivelling around to face Chiron and smiling at him with a look as sharp as a razor.  
Chiron frowned but began to lead the way to the truck they used to make trips to New York, it was an old, red rusty four-by-four. Chiron bid them goodbye and good luck before leaving them to take care of the traumatised campers.  
Inside on the ceiling, they had pinned Polaroid pictures from every trip to the halls of their parents. Most of which Percy featured in, he was the kind of guy that drew your attention without even trying – he had eyes that demanded to be seen and a voice that screamed to be heard, it was one of the things she thought made him incredible.  
They were silent as Jason drove them to the camp, Annabeth wasn't sure when the son of Jupiter had completed his driving test but she was happy about it nonetheless; she wasn't sure she was in the state of mind to be trusted with all their lives.  
Reaching her arm up she pulled one of the photos down, she carefully cradled the pin so that she could replace it afterwards. It was after they had had their second visit to the city in the sky after she had spent days holding up the sky for Luke. Percy wasn't really looking at the camera, typical seaweed brain.  
Everyone else: *pays attention*  
Percy: Oh look at that shiny thing, I must investigate!  
Idiot.  
Thalia had her arm slung around Grover's shoulders and the two of them leant their heads against one another and smiled tiredly at her. She herself was looking at the Camera but her face was turning fractionally towards Percy, they must've been talking about something.  
They were all a bit hurt, a little bruised but they all looked so alive, Annabeth definitely didn't see that twinkle in her eyes anymore. She wished that she had treasured it more.  
Percy was a different story entirely; he stared out into the distance with a blank look in his eyes but a faint smile on his face, as if he knew exactly what was going to happen and was taking a picture in his mind. Percy was a lot more perceptive than he ever let anyone believe, she knew of course.  
"We're here," Jason informed them some time later. Annabeth reluctantly pressed the pin into the picture and them onto the roof where it would remain for years, hopefully.  
As she exited the car she felt a familiar flicker of awe at the sight of the architectural marvel that pierced the sky. No matter how many times she saw it, it never seemed to get any less impressive.  
"So here we are. How is my shirt– I would hate to be inappropriately dressed?" Leo questioned tugging on said item of clothing, frowning.  
"You look like you always do," Annabeth replied frankly. Leo smiled then frowned.  
"Is that good or bad?" He pondered aloud. Jason grabbed the son of Hephaestus by the arm and began to bodily drag the boy into the Empire State Building.  
"Don't manhandle me, dude!" Leo shouted. Annabeth blushed slightly as multiple people stared at them with annoyance and concern. "Let me go!"  
"No," Jason answered shortly. He looked agitated but his eyes were gleaming in a way that suggested that he was nowhere near as upset as he was letting on.  
"Let me go," Leo repeated. Jason raised an unimpressed eyebrow, "Let me go or…. I'll scream 'rape' at the top of my lungs," Jason winced and stopped in his tracks. Piper made an aborted snort/scream noise and Annabeth just stared, slightly peeved off.  
"Oh for the love of- look let's just go to Olympus," she lowered her voice at the last part and took a step closer, "and yell at the Gods and then you can finish this conversation, ok?" she snapped, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes so that she could glare at all of them.  
"Mam, yes, mam," Leo saluted once Jason had released his arm. The pyromaniac cradled the limb close as he danced out of reach and marched towards the front desk, then stopped short.  
"What's wrong now?" She demanded but Leo didn't answer; he continued to stare at the front desk with morbid fascination. Annabeth stalked up to him and followed his gaze to the desk.  
"Lord Poseidon?" she mumbled under her breath in slight amazement. The Sea God was casually leaning against the desk, nursing a glass of water looking like he wished to be anywhere else than where he was currently lingering.  
"Ah, evening Demigods," he greeted placing his water down on the desk, he seemingly didn't notice the glare the man at the desk sent his way. Either that or he didn't care, both were pretty likely.  
Poseidon beckoned them to follow his before walking off into a room behind the desk leaving them no choice but to follow, much to Annabeth's displeasure.  
"So I hear that some drama has unfolded at camp," Poseidon folded his arms across his chest as the entered a storage room about the size of a bathroom, a school one.  
"Yeah, shocking right," Leo drawled running his hands along the boxes on the metal shelves. Poseidon didn't look very amused.  
"With all due respect, Lord Poseidon," Annabeth bowed her head slightly as Poseidon's raging eyes snapped to her. She couldn't remember ever seeing the Sea God so blatantly annoyed. "But we need to talk to Zeus about his stupid…uh...his…" Annabeth frowned as she tried to think of the word, "meddling." She finished lamely.  
"Ah yes, my brother is quite the little annoyance isn't he?" Thunder rumbled outside but Poseidon don't look remotely fazed. "Well, before you go, I must ask you one thing." Annabeth waited patiently but the Sea God remained silent for a long stretch of time as he stared at the wall with bleary eyes.  
"Miss Chase, do you know where my son is?" He asked finally and Annabeth's breath hitched.  
"No, Lord Poseidon, I do not," the words were like barbed wire in her throat. Poseidon nodded as if he'd been awaiting that response.  
"Well then, it would do you good to go find him then," the god suggested lightly but there was rage in his tone that couldn't be ignored. Since when did the Sea God care so much about Percy; the two had hardly ever spoken.  
"I suppose that it would," She replied coldly, she wasn't at all impressed that the god thought for a moment that she wouldn't go looking for her best friend. Did he really think so lowly of her?  
"Time is dangerous, Miss Chase. It is the healer of wounds but it is also the inflictor of some, don't brush it aside as many do." With those parting words the scent of sea breeze wafted through the air and the god vanished.  
"Well," Leo mumbled. "That was interesting,"  
"Indeed," She responded brushing away a drop of dew that had landed on her cheek.

* * *

 **I know, it's not a great update but I'm really tired and having a serious writers block, again.**

 **Happy New Year, I still need to think of a New Years revolution, oops.**

 **Until next time, bye.**


End file.
